India’s Public Health Imperatives: Prioritising People, Partnerships, and Innovations

'The last mile is only as strong as the last clinic in the country. If we succeed, India's demographic dividend will be a dividend of health, skill and dignity.'

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised the 6th CII Public Health Summit 2025 with the theme "India's Public Health Imperatives: Prioritizing People, Partnerships, and Innovations" on 17 September 2025.

The Summit served as a platform to bring together senior leaders from government, industry, philanthropy, academia and civil society to chart actionable pathways for improved maternal & child health, nutrition, early detection of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), district-level financing, and scalable public-health innovations.

The Summit emphasised a decisive shift from a predominantly curative approach to a prevention-first public health agenda that reaches people where they live with stronger district investments, community-led screening, nutritional focus in the first 1,000 days, and responsible adoption of digital and AI tools. CII showcased its strengthened public-health agenda with the recently announced CII Centre for Health.

Ms Smriti Irani, Founder and Chairperson, The Alliance for Global Good: Gender Equity & Equality & Advisor, Women's Collective Forum reflecting on the release of 4 national whitepapers, referring to them as practical playbooks for implementation. She emphasised the importance of healthcare research, strengthening last-mile delivery, and placing women's health and nutrition at the core of India's public health priorities. Outlining key priorities, Ms. Irani stressed maternal referral readiness, informed family planning, nutrition and adolescent health, digital public goods with citizen feedback, stronger public-private partnerships, and women's health beyond reproduction. "The last mile is only as strong as the last clinic. We must plug gaps in emergency obstetric care, blood availability and critical transport. Strengthening LaQshya-like quality initiatives and scaling high-impact protocols in district hospitals will save lives," she said.

Highlighting the importance of translating discussions into concrete action, she noted, "If we succeed, a pregnant woman in remote India will get the same standard of respectful, skilled care as a mother in the city. If we succeed, a schoolgirl will not drop out due to anaemia or untreated depression. If we succeed, India's demographic dividend will be a dividend of health, skill and dignity." Stressing the importance of accountability, she urged that recommendations from summits must translate into district action plans, budget lines, and public dashboards.

Dr Randeep Guleria, Chairman-Governing Council, CII Centre for Health, Chairman - Internal Medicine, Respiratory and Sleep Medicine Medanta - The Medicity, emphasised the urgent need to shift India's public-health focus from treatment to prevention and last-mile delivery. He highlighted how multi-stakeholder collaboration, combining government leadership, private-sector innovation, community mobilisation and global expertise have driven historic gains in maternal and child health, and must now be harnessed to tackle malnutrition, anaemia and the rising burden of non-communicable diseases. Dr Guleria also reiterated CII's commitment to strengthening district-level systems through the CII Centre for Health and said "Delivering last-mile impact requires government leadership, private-sector innovation, community mobilisation and global expertise working together." He stressed on promoting low-cost, scalable innovations, and creating financing mechanisms that move beyond CSR to sustainable public-health investments.

Dr V K Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, called for a renewed focus on delivering health where it matters most - at the district and community level. He acknowledged India's progress on maternal and child survival, noting that most of the maternal and child health indicators have improved, especially the neonatal mortality rate stands at 17 against the SDG target of 12, but urged acceleration so that all states reach equitable outcomes by 2030. Dr Paul highlighted three priority areas: ensuring lagging states achieve single-digit maternal mortality, forging partnerships to eliminate targeted infectious diseases, and making nutrition a cornerstone of public-health strategy, especially given that one in four Indian women are severely anemic. He said, "Artificial intelligence offers a huge opportunity for public health - from individual preventive care to disease-spectrum surveillance and life course, to decision-making with diagnosis and treatment; use of digital and AI on scale, but we must manage the risks carefully as well." He also stressed the importance of addressing the rising burden of non-communicable diseases and mental-health challenges among youth, alongside the adoption of digital and AI-driven solutions for surveillance, early detection, and resource optimisation.

Mr M Hari Menon, Country Director, India and Lead - Policy and Govt Relations, South & Southeast Asia, Gates Foundation, reaffirmed the Foundation's long-term commitment to India and underscored India's global leadership in cost-effective, scalable health solutions. He outlined the Gates Foundation's twin public-health priorities, ending preventable deaths and driving elimination of infectious diseases and emphasised that India's innovations and scaling diagnostic solutions capacity (as demonstrated during COVID) position the country to not only meet domestic goals but to export solutions across the Global South. He said, "When India succeeds through cost-effective innovation, robust partnerships and relentless last-mile focus, those gains reverberate across the Global South, and the world benefits." He called for a relentless focus on last-mile impact highlighting the recent partnership with CII for the Centre for Health and converting India's vast data and experience into actionable insights that can be scaled quickly and equitably.

The event featured the release of four national white paper developed in collaboration with CII, Women's Collective Forum and academic institutes of national repute on the following themes:

· India's Progress in Improving Maternal Health Outcomes - Population Research Centre, Bengaluru

· India's Progress, Achievements and Opportunities in Family Planning - Population Council Institute, New Delhi

· New Ideas and Innovations for Women's Health in India - Indian School of Business, Hyderabad

· Child and Adolescent Health Outcomes - Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi

As India charts its path towards a resilient, inclusive, and technology-enabled healthcare for the Viksit Bharat 2047, the Summit served as a catalyst for active and compassionate deliberations on innovation policy alignment, industry, academia, and civil society.